


Saving Throw

by impish_nature



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: DD&MD, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, bonding over board games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 14:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10788684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/impish_nature/pseuds/impish_nature
Summary: Ford struggles with his mistakes, what ifs and what could have beens. But luckily he has someone to remind him that accidents happen and things work out in the end. (Set around D,D&MD)





	Saving Throw

**Author's Note:**

> Present for @lockholmes. It took me a while but it’s finally here ^o^ I hope you like it ♥

_Look at what you’ve done._  
In the whole scheme of things-  
Really? You really want to go down that route?

Ford sighed as the elevator came to a stop outside the basement, the soft almost chirp of a ‘ding’ doing nothing for his sour mood as he crossed the threshold and added yet another failure to the room that he had once thought held the secret to everything.

The room he had once thought would be his greatest achievement, his biggest failure of them all.

But that wasn’t what was eating away at him that particular day. The portal was dismantled enough that he needn’t worry about it restarting, the rift was contained in its temporary glass dome and for now the world was safe.

No, what ate away at him that particular moment was the fact that he had put his family in harm’s way.

He scowled, dropping his arms contents into a small heap on the floor, hearing bits and pieces of it clatter away and roll out of sight and he couldn’t quite bring himself to care.

_Stan was right. He told you to stay away from them._

Ford growled at the thought, pushing it back into the recess of his mind. He’d tried! He’d tried to keep to himself. He knew just as well as Stan did how much his research had got him into trouble and had agreed with him that it was better to keep the kids out of the basement. It wasn’t his fault that Dipper had found a way down here, or that he had thought that a game of D,D&MD couldn’t hurt. And really, it was Stan’s fault for knocking the infinity die out of his hand that had actually caused the fallout that followed-

_Really? You’re going to go down that path now?_

“It’s true. If Stan hadn’t-” The words came out before he could stop them and were just as quickly crushed by his looming thoughts.

_You should never have had the die in the first place!  
‘If Stan hadn’t’ ‘If Dipper hadn’t’ – are you ever going to stop denying your part in things even to yourself?_

Ford gulped, the words on his tongue falling flat as he looked down crestfallen at the small pile, the scattered graph paper, the dice still rolling to a halt a few feet away and the board that looked accusingly back at him. He knew what he had done, it was just easier to push it away from himself. There was always a domino effect, that’s how life worked. Nothing was ever one person’s unanimous fault in a scenario, and especially on the other side of the portal he had learnt the hard way that sometimes it was nobody’s fault. Nobody to point the finger at, to get angry at because even when you did everything right sometimes things still went wrong.

Other times there was no one else there to blame, just him and a miscalculation, a misfire or a misunderstanding that left him bloodied and far more cautious than before.

You learnt from your mistakes, accidents happened. You dusted yourself off and kept moving because guilt and shame didn’t keep you alive, especially when you’d done everything you could in that situation.

But in this case, in this scenario?

All his arguments seemed to come back and hit him. The dominos always led a trail back squarely to him.

Sure, Stan had knocked the infinity sided die from his hand, but he should never have had it in the first place. He’d warned Dipper of its potential dangers and yet still in what he had deemed a normal game of D,D&MD he had still felt the need to keep it with all his other dice.

And if Dipper hadn’t fallen into the basement- an accident he knew, but one that was not in his control nonetheless, then they would never have started playing. Then again, he could have stuck to his guns and told him to leave, like he was supposed to do, taken him to the elevator and back to the main house and ignored the boy’s arguments. He should have, he knew he could have but the nostalgia that the game had brought on had just been too much of a temptation to resist…

And really, if it was any other relative or friend the boy had managed to find to play with, he could almost categorically prove that the game would have started and ended as intended, not with a twisted life or death parody of the boy’s favourite game.

_Former favourite game._

And didn’t that just make his stomach twist up in knots?

All he’d wanted was to bond with his nephew and he might have irreversibly ruined both his chances at that and something the boy held dear.

_That? That’s what you’re worried about? You could have gotten him killed!_

The knots tightened, twisting until he was sure if he wasn’t still on his nutritional pills he would have thrown up whatever food was in his system. The ‘what ifs’ started to swirl, thick and heavy and spiralling him further and further into his own head, locking him in place. His own life? Well, that was par for the course. Too many close calls and narrow encounters to really fear the inevitable any more.  But Dipper’s? If the others hadn’t been quick enough, or if they hadn’t come after them at all, would he have been able to look after him? Protect him? The thoughts curdled inside his chest, making his heart thud painfully as his ears rang, his eyes glazing over. He could see all the potentials, all the probable outcomes and though he’d never say thank you for it, the probability of Stan’s last dice roll had been so slim, that he couldn’t help but be grateful for his brother always taking on a challenge that wasn’t in his favour.

His thoughts faltered at that, more possibilities adding to the probable ones. What if there hadn’t been steadfast rules the brought to life game pieces had to play by?

What would he have done if Mabel had gotten hurt? He’d never really had a chance to get to know her yet, not like Dipper. A shudder ran down his spine, ice tingling across his skin, at the thought of all that colour vanishing from the world in a blink of an eye. Those twinkling eyes, that sparkling smile and all the warmth that could be held in a person, stone cold and grey and-

He gulped, his hands wrapping around his forearms as he shook the thoughts away.

_It didn’t happen, it didn’t-  
But it could have and it would have been your fault._

“Stop it.” The words came out with more authority than he had expected. Loud and clear and cutting through the thoughts like a knife. He gave a shuddering gasp of a breath, letting his arms fall as he breathed in deep.

_It was just a game. Things went wrong but you dealt with them.  
You didn’t- they did. They got you out of that mess._

Ford closed his eyes against the onslaught in his head. He sat down shakily, letting the words fizzle into a venomous hiss instead of outright snarls before he opened his eyes again. His hands went to stray bits of paper, patting them together into a pile, ignoring the two distinct writing styles in favour of the temporary distraction of getting every single piece to line up perfectly.

The room and his thoughts went blissfully silent as he did so, the crinkle of the paper the only sound as he continued to shift the pages over and over.

A cold slithering voice spoke up quietly then, almost disjointed and unconnected from him enough for his head to snap up quickly.

_What about Stan’s?_

“Wha-”

_Stan. Stan’s life. What about his-_

An explosion of new images made him shrink back into himself, a wave of self-loathing bubbling up that he hadn’t thought of him along with the kids. Stan jumping in to protect Dipper, shielding Mabel- hell, even launching at Probabilitor to save them all, danced behind his eyelids. Sure, they were still arguing. Sure, he was still angry. But he’d never want Stan to get truly hurt or worse-

 _Could you live with it?_  
Could you honestly live with never having made amends with him if something happened to him because of you?  
If he hadn’t-  
Stop lying to yourself. You’re supposed to be smart.

His own life, that consequence he could deal with.

But theirs? Any of theirs?

That was another matter.

Who was he kidding? He wasn’t cut out for any of this.

_Stan was right… I’m dangerous._

He’d been away from this dimension too long.

_Doesn’t matter now anyway. He won’t want to be near me again after that._

Ford nodded to himself, sitting up straight as he steeled himself for that painful truth. The kids would realise now that they should keep their distance. Stan would get what he wanted and they would all leave, safe and sound at the end of the summer.

Leave him to his research.

All alone.

“That’s just how it has to be.” The words came out as a ghost of breath. Ford frowned at the space ahead of him, where he could almost see the words hanging useless and dejected. He knew that was the case, the most logical outcome so why had his voice warbled, the tone so disappointed by the prospect?

The resignation tasted bitter and upsetting at the back of his throat, even when his brain pointed out that he had a lot of work still to do, work that would be far too dangerous for any of the others to know about.

It really was for the best.

So why did it sting so much?

Ford scowled, picking up the graph paper, the scribbled writing showing the enthusiasm they’d both had only yesterday when they’d excited filled out sheet after sheet. New characters, new enemies, jumping into the deep end of the game because that was half the fun. Now it was just painful to look at.

It wasn’t like they’d ever get used again, anyway.

He hummed, his mouth twisting thoughtfully as he grabbed a lighter from his pocket. He flicked it, open, closed, open, closed, over and over as he mused on what to do next. He grabbed the box from the side, slipping the board inside as he gathered up the dice that were still within reaching distance. He could just burn it all, get rid of all the evidence and pretend it had never happened, or at least be safe in the knowledge it would _never_ happen again. Dipper probably wouldn’t even notice, he wouldn’t be up for playing again any time soon and by the time he was- if he ever was, it would probably be when he was back home where games were just games and he wasn’t around to mess them up.

He added the dice that had come with the new game to the mix, his hand hesitantly hovering over his pocket, where his own dice were stored. He should probably get rid of them all. The likelihood of anyone playing the game with him again slim to none but somehow he couldn’t bring himself to get rid of them too.

Until another bubble of seething snarling loathing blossomed.

_Selfish. If you’re going to do this, do it properly._

Ford bit his lip, dropping both his hands. Who was he kidding? He had no idea whether this was the best option. For all he knew, Dipper would get angry at him for burning his things, want to take the game back with him.

_I’ll buy him a new version, one I haven’t touched.  
You know full well how hard it is to get the right version of this game, you might not be able to._

The logic was sound though he hated to admit it. He flicked the lighter a few more times, pushing the box and the board to one side in a moment of decisiveness, as he placed the graph paper down and mused over the smaller yet far more significant pile.

He could get Dipper new graph paper easily. All he really had to do was get rid of the evidence of their game and Dipper probably would be fine to play the game again when he knew he was safe from him and his infinity sided die.

As long as he wasn’t involved then everything would be fine.

He hoped Dipper would see that.

_No, you don’t._

Ford groaned at the treacherous voice in his own head.

_Alright, fine. I’d love for him to realise it was an accident and play again but that’s not going to happen now is it? Are you happy?_

There wasn’t an answer to his question, but the bitter disappointment in his sharp response was enough. Instead of dwelling anymore he picked up the top page, putting the lighter to the corner as he prepared himself to get rid of yesterday’s happy memories.

Before everything had gone wrong, when it had all been just fun and games and here he was burning it all away because _he’d ruined it_ , one mistake and he’d ruined it all-

“Grunkle Ford, what are you doing?”

“Dipper?” Ford jumped from his position on the floor like the voice had burned him, the lighter and smoking page falling from his hands in the movement. He cursed as the page lit, stamping on it quickly before anything untoward on the floor burned as well, not wanting to add another mistake to the day’s proceedings. “W-what are you doing down- How did you get down here?”

“You didn’t hide the password last time we came down to play.”

“I- Oh.”

Silence reigned as the pair regarded one another.

It was Dipper that broke it.

“You still didn’t answer what you were doing.”

Ford bit his lip, looking away. “That’s- unimportant. What are you doing down here, Dipper? You know you’re not meant to come down here.”

Dipper shrunk back at that, a wave of shame flooding Ford at the guilty expression. “I just… wanted to check up on you. You didn’t even respond when Mabel asked if you wanted to give Ducktective a try.”

“I…” Ford didn’t really have an argument for that one. “I didn’t want to encroach.”

Dipper gave him an unimpressed look, one Ford was almost proud of considering how long it had taken the boy to stop stuttering in front of him. “You can’t encroach when you’re invited.”

“…Fair. I guess I didn’t want to- I wasn’t sure that I’d-”

“You can just say it’s not your kind of show.” Dipper raised an eyebrow, grinning when Ford finally let out a soft chuckle, his shoulders relaxing minutely.

“Quite. I didn’t want to ruin it for any of you. I’d have to see the rest of it before the finale, right?”

Dipper beamed at that. “We’re always happy to show you. Me and Mabel and Grunkle-” His voice faded at that before shaking his head. “Anyway, I know it seems kind of childish but it’s better than it sounds. I was a bit sceptical at first too but Mabel asked me to watch one with her one morning and it became tradition to watch it together whenever it was on.”

 _You took him away from that._  
_Not intentionally._  
 _… You still mocked the show in front of him, he’s defending it._

“I’m sure it’s great. You’re right, I should give it a chance.” Ford smiled indulgently, still feeling out of sorts from the turmoil in his head and the dissonance of Dipper’s almost vibrating happiness. “I shouldn’t have called it childish. I was lashing out at Stan, not the show.”

It was so against how he’d expected their next conversation to go.

“I know. Believe me, they mocked D,D&MD before I came down to play with you. But they liked the game once they played it, even if it was… unusual circumstances. So, I have hope for you liking Ducktective yet!”

Ford’s face fell at Dipper’s words even as he continued to appear completely fine with the day’s turn of events.

Dipper seemed to notice his expression, his own face falling as he looked at his feet.

“A-Anyway, it just didn’t feel right for you to be in the basement all on your own when we didn’t finish our game. I didn’t mean to leave, but I did want to catch the rerun with Mabel.”

“That’s quite alright, you don’t have to worry about playing again with me, I completely understand.”

Dipper’s head shot up, his eyebrows furrowing into a deep frown. “Don’t have to worry- I want to play.” His eyes flicked between Ford’s expression and the items at his feet, his voice growing hesitant and suspicious in equal measures. “Grunkle Ford, what were you doing?”

“I- I was…” Ford scratched at his cheek awkwardly as he glanced down. “After today I didn’t think you’d want any more adventures for a while, so I thought I’d just make it easier on both of us and get rid of the notes. I wasn’t going to get rid of your board or your dice! And I would have bought you new graph paper-”

“Grunkle Ford, you can’t get rid of our game! We haven’t finished it yet!”

“I- But- You-” He couldn’t get anything past, not when insidious hope was crushing all the half-hearted excuses.

“Today was an anomaly, it wasn’t like we intended for our board game to come to life.”

Ford gave a wry smile, unable to resist. “Anomalies are attracted to Gravity Falls though.”

“Yeah well, that doesn’t mean that every time we play we’re going to have to actually fight Probabilitor.” Dipper rolled his eyes as if that was obvious. “I mean, it wasn’t even intentional today! No one meant for the infinity sided die to get rolled! If it hadn’t been, we’d have had a fun day of games today. Maybe with some more normal upsetting arguments in between, but normal none the less! And anything could have happened when that die got rolled anyway, what are the chances of that happening again?”

“Slim to none.” Ford spoke firm, nodding, though for other reasons. “And that’s because we won’t be playing again and I’ll make sure the infinity sided die is locked away somewhere safe.”

“You don’t want to play again?”

Dipper’s voice was so despondent that Ford couldn’t get the lie out. The words he knew he had to say shrivelled up and died before they could make it up his throat. “I- of course I’d love to play but I don’t want- I could have gotten you hurt today.”

“It wasn’t your fault!”

“No?”

“No- I-” It was Dipper’s turn to fumble for words, biting at the inside of his lip as he seemed to struggle. “No one asked for this to happen, it was an accident. But everything was OK in the end! So, that- that was the worst case scenario and we beat it! So any other game would be a lot less dangerous by comparison.” Dipper nodded to himself, as if it made perfect sense. “So we can still play!” His voice faltered as he seemed to realise what he was demanding, his voice turning more genuine and plaintive. “ _I’d_ still like to play if you would.”

“I’d love to-”

“Then that settles it.” Dipper cut him off, smiling brightly as he gathered up the board and pieces again. “Why don’t we go have a normal game now to prove it? I already checked with Grunkle Stan and he said as long as I let him know in advance, and it’s not around dinnertime, we can use the kitchen table to spread everything out on. Plus! As long as we check if we get really into a game again, I’m sure they’d be OK with us taking over the living room.” Dipper’s smile grew and grew as if that settled everything, tugging at Ford’s hand with the one that wasn’t tightly holding the box to his side.

“Are you sure?” Ford let himself get led back towards the elevator, the voice in his head evaporating in the warm glow radiating off the boy.

After all, he still wanted to get to know him, that had to mean something.

Maybe he hadn’t ruined everything.

And another smaller, even more hopeful voice that he tried his best to ignore, slipped in another teensy detail that he didn’t want to broach in case it burst in his face.

_Stan didn’t tell Dipper to stay away from you._

“Of course I’m sure! Hey, how about we make up our own game this time? One set in Gravity Falls? You could add in some details of the creatures you encountered when you first arrived here.”

Ford laughed at the thought, raising an eyebrow as he hesitantly bantered back. “You know, you could just ask me to tell you those stories.”

“Yeah but that’s not nearly as fun. Plus, I wasn’t sure you’d answer them.” Dipper gave him a cheeky look, tapping at the button on the elevator before Ford had even realised they were inside. “But yeah, I don’t think we need all the fantasy additions today- or we can at least change their stats to be more realistic.”

“Dipper.” Ford shook his head, as Dipper’s face dropped. “We could go outside and I could show you those creatures if you wanted. From a distance, that is.” His words twisted again as he thought about potential dangers and all the things that could go wrong again. “Or I could let you look at my other journals or-”

“Nah, that’s not as fun as playing a game with you.” Dipper tugged at his sleeve again as the elevator opened. “And besides, I’m not really up for any more adventures today. I think a table top one sounds adventurous enough for tonight, what do you think?”

Ford huffed, letting his last few excuses and arguments slide off his back and back into the basement, all his overthinking and dismal outlooks firmly squashed down in the earth where they could stay for the moment. Instead he let the hope and enthusiasm take back over, the happiness that the boy would still want to get to know him, and let himself just enjoy the moment instead of worrying.

One game of D,D&MD couldn’t hurt, really could it?

“There you are, Dipper! You never said if you wanted to watch the other episodes they were playing after- oh.” Mabel gave a sheepish smile as she rounded the corner and spotted them both. “Hi, Grunkle Ford!”

“Hello, Mabel.” Ford gave her a sheepish look in return, hand darting behind his head nervously. “Dipper and I were going to go back to another round of D,D&MD actually but if you two would rather…?”

“Nah, we’ve seen them all a bajillion times anyway.” Mabel waved him off with a small sound, though her smile was still hesitant as she turned to her brother. “Actually… could I join in… maybe?”

“You want to?”

Mabel shrugged. “I mean, I could watch! There might be a bit too much math involved.” Her eyes darted back to Ford. “It that’s OK, that is…”

Ford couldn’t get the words out quick enough for his liking. “Of course it is! The more the merrier.” His entire demeanour softened as the girl brightened back to her usual shimmering self, filled to the brim with excitement.

“Yay! Family board games! Even if I don’t understand them entirely!” She fist pumped, jumping into the air before scurrying off ahead of them to the kitchen, Dipper following with equal enthusiasm.

“As long as you two are sure. I’m sure Stan would be upset if there were any more incidents today.”

The words came out quiet, and mostly for himself so he couldn’t help the wince as the twins paused, locking eyes with one another in a silent conversation at his reaction.

“Hey, Mabel, you can help me actually. How about instead of a normal game, we use the board to tell Grunkle Ford some of the other adventures we’ve had over the summer?”

“Yeah? How will we do that?” Mabel sat down, nodding away even as she waited.

“Well, first we’ll have to make character sheets. We’ll make one for each of us, we’ll do each other’s and add the best weapons for each of us. Then we’ll see how differently things could have played out now with hindsight on our side. So it’s still a game with a story, just using an actual adventure that happened.” He turned to Ford with a smile. “Then afterwards we can tell you how things actually panned out. And you can add us into some of your stories from before we got here!”

Ford blinked at him, frowning in befuddlement. “You’re going to add me into the stories? But I wasn’t here for them.”

Mabel shrugged. “You’re here now, and that’s what matters.” She turned back to Dipper, intrigued. “OK, you’ve got me, what adventure are we starting with?”

“I was thinking zombies. Their stats in the game are the same to what they actually were basically so they won’t need much modifying.” Dipper fiddled with the notes before him, grabbing out the sheets he needed as he regarded them before turning to them both with a grin. “Plus I want to see what kind of stats Grunkle Ford can give a karaoke machine.”

“A karaoke machine- wait, you two went up against the undead? Why- what- how?”

“Technically it was us, Grunkle Stan and Soos but yeah we did well! Well, except Soos but we got him cured so it’s all fine.” Mabel shrugged, still beaming brightly as if Ford wasn’t spluttering away in a panic about things he had no control over.

“That doesn’t answer how.”

“Uhh, I might have…” Dipper looked down, biting his lip as if warring with himself before shaking his head and looking up at Ford defiantly. “I might have read a passage from the journal because I wanted to impress… I mean I didn’t think…” He gulped, dog earing the page nervously as he looked away from him again. “It wasn’t meant to actually do anything like that, maybe raise one or two to show them they were wrong about me and the book but-”

“It was an accident, you weren’t to know.” Ford patted his shoulder, relieving some of the tension as Dipper relaxed into the grip. “You shouldn’t have had the journal in the first place, that’s on me-”

“ _No_.” Dipper shook the hand from his shoulder, eyes snapping to Ford’s and locking him in place. “No, it was an accident. I never meant for that to happen. But it did. There’s lots of little things that led to it- but it was me who did it.” He raised a hand as Mabel opened her mouth to argue. “Mabel and Grunkle Stan told me it was OK though, they forgave me- even Soos said he knew it wasn’t intentional and he got bitten! So, I guess I’m just trying to say that today…”

_Today wasn’t your fault. And even if it were we forgive you._

“Oh.” Ford blinked as his mind supplied the rest of the words. “Oh.” He tilted his head as Dipper refused to look up at him. “Did you choose this particular story intentionally to tell me that?”

“Maybe?”

“…You still want to do this one?”

Dipper nodded, relaxing further as he went back to the game. “Yeah. Now that it’s over with, it’s a fun story. I mean Grunkle Stan-” He bit his lip, his smile growing cheeky. “Well, I guess you’ll just have to wait and see what happened.”

Ford raised an eyebrow, his curiosity getting the better of him. “Well now I do have to hear it. So, was this karaoke machine a magical item would you say?”

“I dunno, the way Mabel used it, it was more of a blunt weapon.”

Ford blinked, turning back to Mabel with delighted appraisal. “Huh.”

“Oh, unless you want to go with a different story, Mabel?”

Mabel shook her head, preening under Ford’s mildly shocked expression though she seemed giddy for other reasons. “Hey, if this means you’re not beating yourself up about the zombie incident anymore, I am happy to go along with this one.” She pulled a sheet of paper towards her, starting to doodle out the karaoke machine to help Ford with his stat building. “So, karaoke machine for me, journal for you? Cause it did get us out of the danger too. And… knuckledusters or the baseball bat for Grunkle Stan?”

“Knuckledusters, he used them more.”

“… Stan used knuckledusters? Against zombies?” He couldn’t decide whether to be exasperated, angry or stick to pure and utter befuddlement. “A close range weapon against… zombies?”

Dipper shrugged. “Only when the baseball bat broke.”

“He probably would have punched them with or without the knuckledusters though.”

“…Obviously.” His body decided on endearing exasperation without his agreement as the kids both seemed oblivious to Stan’s reckless abandon.

“I mean, I’m not sure what else he had on hand.” Dipper defended him, though most of his thought process was on scribbling out a character sheet for Ford.

“Can I do Grunkle Stan’s?”

Dipper nodded, starting to explain the stat building as Ford watched happily, amused as Mabel nodded seriously along to every word before he started to make sheets for the pair of them at the same time.

“Oh no, I haven’t lost you to the nerd game too, have I?”

The three looked up as Stan stood in the doorway, his face mock upset as he shook his head at them.

Mabel waved the sheet at him she was working on. “Dipper said I could have the karaoke machine as a weapon! How neat is that?”

Stan raised his eyebrows, his mouth quirking up into a smile. “Huh, didn’t think the rules would allow that.”

“Some rules can be bent.” Dipper pointed a pen at him, waiting for some actual bite to his snide comments.

But Stan just grinned wider, eyes flickering to Ford for only a moment before turning back to the kids. “Heh, well that sounds more like my kind of game.” Before any of them could say another word he yawned, stretching. “I’ve had enough excitement for today, though. Don’t stay up too late playing your game, nerds.”

“Hey! I’m not a nerd. That’s for these two.”

Stan popped his head back around the door at Mabel’s words, winking playfully. “You’re the one playing the game, Pumpkin. Have fun. Try not to get attacked by anything, I’m not up for anymore real adventures tonight.”

“Don’t worry.” Dipper piped up, smiling back. “Strictly table top this time.”

“Then I’ll leave you to it.” His eyes found Ford again, mouth opening as if he wanted to say something more but instead he looked back to the kids with a wave and left without another word.

Ford watched the exchange, staying silent himself. He wasn’t sure how to take it. On one hand Stan hadn’t said a word to him, had almost seemed nervous to try and speak to him. But on the other…

On the other he hadn’t seemed annoyed at him at all for spending time with the kids. Hadn’t repeated that he should stay away from them, that he was dangerous.

That was something, wasn’t it?

He continued to watch Stan as he left, thoughts mulling over everything. Even though the day had been eventful, guilt filled in hindsight and nerve wracking at the time, there had been a moment, right at the end of it all when all the arguments had fallen away. When they had won, and they’d all been elated. That moment of pure relief and adrenaline when they were victorious.

The moment when he had been part of the family and they’d somehow all had fun in amongst the madness.

And just for a moment, he and his brother had been on the same page again. Just for a blink, just for a second, they hadn’t felt the need to snarl at one another.

Just a moment where it wasn’t awkward small talk even, when all the dark years had fallen away from them for just a small time. Booming laughter and wide stretched grins and words that didn’t have a hidden venomous meaning behind them.

There had been the moment just before the arguments had started too. When, without even thinking, he had offered that Stan join in their game. Just a small slip, but one that now filled him with the realisation that he did, deep down, want them to talk through everything, to stop arguing every time they spoke.

Dipper caught him staring before he fully had time to come to terms with his own thoughts.

“Hey, we’ve already got Grunkle Stan to play with us once now, maybe there’s a chance we can get him to play with us again.”

Ford blinked, looking down at him. He hadn’t even been thinking of that, but now the thought was there. The four of them, not the three of them sitting around the table sharing stories. The four of them watching TV shows together, getting knee deep into movies. Laughter and jokes and all the things he’d missed over the years.

The words came out without a thought, genuine and without overthinking. His earlier thoughts of never making amends with his brother sitting in his subconscious more than their arguments in that moment.

“You know, I’d like that. I’d like that a lot.”

**Author's Note:**

> AN: All the hurt/comfort required I hope! I thought it’d be interesting if Ford thinking on his own mistakes might make him a bit more… sympathetic? towards Stan (plus he doesn’t want him to get hurt deep down and that’s made him reevaluate). I dunno, canon divergence a little bit maybe? c:


End file.
